World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseMa Buqing was born in Monigou (now in Linxia County), Gansu Province, China into an ethnic Hui family of Sufi Khufiyya Islam religion; Ma Bufang, who also played a role in the military and political arenas, was his brother. He was the oldest child of Ma Qi, the founder of the regional Ninghai Army, which was nicknamed the Ma Family Army by the locals. In 1918, he joined the Ninghai Army as a junior officer. In 1920, he was named the commander of the 65th Cavalry Battalion of the Ninghai Army. In 1926, he became the commanding officer of the 55th Independent Brigade of the Ninghai 5th Army. During the Central Plains War of 1930, he originally sided with warlord Feng Yuxiang, but he soon switched sides to join Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist forces. In 1931, his father passed away, and his uncle Ma Lin inherited the force with the blessing of Chiang's government. In 1932, he was named the commanding officer of the Ninghai 1st Cavalry Division. In 1932, as hostilities mounted with Japan, he was given command of the 5th Cavalry Division of the Nationalist forces. In 1936, Ma Buqing led Nationalist troops against Communist forces in the Ningxia region during the Long March retreat, causing serious casualties. In 1937, he became the commanding officer of the Chinese Nationalist 5th Cavalry Corps, which was expanded from the 5th Division and was consisted of Muslim troops. In early 1940, he participated in the successful Battle of Wuyuan. In 1942, he was named the Reclamation Commissioner of Qinghai Province as an attempt to block the Soviet-leaning warlord Sheng Shicai's forces in Xinjiang Province so that the central Nationalist leadership could focus on the war against the Japanese and the Communists. In 1943, he became the deputy commander-in-chief of the 40th Army Group as his 5th Cavalry Corps was merged into this new corps; feeling that he was deprived of a fair chance to lead this corps, he largely stayed out of major actions for the remainder of the war. In early Aug 1948, as the Nationalist forces were on the verge of defeat in the Chinese Civil War, Ma fled to Taiwan Province with his family and a sizable fortune. He was named a senior advisor in the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of China. He passed away from sickness in Taipei, Taiwan in 1977.

Photographs

Ma Buqing Timeline